Juan Williams Suggests Buying Off Republicans with Campaign Donations to End Stalemate

Yesterday, on Fox News Sunday, Juan Williams said he thinks he knows how to end the ongoing gridlock over the partial shutdown of the federal government and the debt ceiling. Williams said the business community should get involved, suggesting that strategic campaign donations could persuade moderate Republicans — like Susan Collins and John Boehner — to “be reasonable.”

Republicans are imploding and what they have — and I think is really key — it’s not just the markets, it’s the business community that needs to reassert itself inside the Republican Party, so that people like Susan Collins, people even like potentially John Boehner, could see that there’s some political powers from money that comes forth to Republican moderates in this fight and that people want him to be reasonable and not simply listen to the far right wing that right now is dominating the Republican Party and driving them over the cliff [emphasis added].

So has Williams finally seen the light on the 1st Amendment? Because just a few months ago he was blaming the Supreme Court — and the Citizens United decision — for the IRS targeting of conservative groups. He complained that the court’s decision unleashed unlimited “dark money” contributions to influence elections:

The calculating, big money players have long wanted to keep their donations secret. Citizens United allowed them to give all the money they wanted without having their names attached to it. … They don’t want to deal with the public fall-out of being seen as a puppet master pulling the strings of the politician they helped elect with their contributions. They don’t want to be seen as supporting corporate welfare or the gutting of labor and environmental regulations or any other unpopular causes that will line their corporate coffers.

Are we to believe that Williams now wants corporate “puppet masters” to pull some strings with “dark money” donations to keep the “far right wing” from driving the Republican Party over the cliff — out of the goodness of his heart?

Why, the man is a veritable Karl Rove — get him a white board!

First, let’s acknowledge that Williams’s suggestion is not exactly preposterous (except for Juan’s hypocrisy). Money buys influence on both sides of the aisle. There would be no “dark money” if it didn’t work and donors didn’t get a return on their investment. And Williams may prove to be a prophet if this all ends with a show of force by the business community inside the Republican Party as they once again elbow out conservatives.

But why does Williams, a liberal Democrat, want moderates to prevail in the Republican Party? Is it so they can win more seats in 2014? So they can win the presidency in 2016? Why does Williams want to help the Republicans?

Is it for the same reason Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) was interrupted more than half a dozen times at the Values Voter Summit last week? Cruz said:

The left will always, always, always tell you who they fear — and they fear you. They fear the American people.

Cruz was echoing something Rush Limbaugh often says. Limbaugh weighed in on Cruz’s comment during his show on Friday:

I’m telling you that is so right on, and they fear Ted Cruz right now. That is the sole reason why they get so worked up at people. If Cruz paled in these people’s minds, if they were the bumbling idiots that the left and the media tell us, that they don’t have a prayer of winning, if you’re so stupid, what’s the old rule? Get out of the way and let your opponent drown or destroy himself or make a fool of himself.

But Democrats are not getting out of the way. Instead, Williams and others in the Democratic Party, bless their hearts, continue to tell Republicans that becoming more moderate is the sure path to victory.

Williams may be a liberal, but he’s no dummy. He sees the rising tide of a populist movement sweeping the country — Americans wresting control of their government from the political class — targeting Republicans and Democrats alike.  A conservative takeover of the Republican Party poses an existential threat to the progressive-liberal fantasies of Democrats, which is why liberal pundits like Williams are advising Republicans to self-immolate.

It should be a basic rule in politics that when your enemy gives you advice, it is not in your best interest to take it. Machiavelli said in The Prince,

The Romans never allowed a trouble spot to remain simply to avoid going to war over it, because they knew that wars don’t just go away, they are only postponed to someone else’s advantage.

The Democrats want this war now for a reason. They know that if the insurgent conservative movement is not destroyed now, the “trouble spot” will only become stronger and more difficult to defeat later.